The Love Of Grey
by Snow Turtle
Summary: A troubling life is to be lived after the death of Penny. Can they make it? Here is a small preview of chapter two. I'll post the finish version tomorrow. I've re-read chapter one to come back to a lot of mistakes, those will be corrected. Thank you, and again, constructive criticism is always welcomed.


Things change, and there are no problem with it or a reason to hate it. To Gumball something things just aren't meant to be view through a practical lens; penny's funeral was that thing. Mr. Fitzgerald wasn't really fearful of the harm Penny could cause others, but rather the harm she would definitely cause herself. Being a shapeshifter has its flaws and limits. Her ever-changing body was bound to leave its mark, and it did just that. Her cells got so used to changing at moments noticed, that it picked up a habit of doing it on its own. For the last eight months, Penny's body developed a unique type of cancer; the cells began to grow faster than any stage four cancer could ever grow. Her body tried to protect itself by changing its size and shape to accommodate her illness, but like the growth rate of her cells, her defense mechanism got out of hand and was added on to the list of things that were killing her. Never once did it stopped her from being her. Every time a change occurred she quickly made a joke out of it, instantly lifting and lighting the mood the best she could. Even at the end when she was too unstable and weak, her body was still the punchline to every joke, and she was still the heart of every funny story; as she drew her final breath that fact remained the same, and her friends cried harder for it. Her family stood by the door of her hospital room while Gumball stood by her side, stroking her face and comforting her. He stayed even hours after she passed, as shapeshifters don't decay. As she died, he grew, day by day he was more mature than the Gumball the town claimed to know, maturing by her side. That maturity kept him strong, counting every tear that he had to hold back for the pleasure of being able to see his girlfriend smile brighter and brighter, as her life grew dimmer and dimmer. Her friends, each with their own ways to deal with the tragedy, aged and grew, molding themselves, being the product of how Penny's hardship altered everyone. They each developed a new personality along with Gumball, coping with what was the worst life had to offer.

The weight and the force were unbearable. Gumball fled into music, maturity, work, exercise, and martial arts. Carrie fled into music as well as Gumball but that's where the similarity ended. Carrie, the close ghostly friend ran straight into the arts of the forbidden magic, looking for a solution. Her efforts sadly came to avail. Darwin, the brother of Gumball, fled into charity work, singing, and making the most of his own romantic tale. He spends night and day helping the less fortunate hoping to get a favour in return. He was also making the most of his time available for Rachel(his girlfriend, and Tobias's sister). Penny put everything she had left to not be a downer everytime someone visited; she spent all her alone time writing and illustrating her stories and fantasies of the lives she could have lived. It was mainly romantic fantasies with a happy ending well enough to make the toughest of nails cry. Her heart skipped a beat when she could tell that it touched all her friend's heart and that it was the highlight of their days. It especially skipped a beat when it came to Gumball, as sad as it was to her that she could never live out her dreams of growing up with Gumball, she didn't regret a thing. As the day approached, Penny died happily and peacefully with all the love she could handle to send her off into the afterlife. One by one everyone retreated back into their own worlds to deal with the sorrow that was her funeral. Even with the end of her life, it was still the beginning of her friends. It was turning point that no one could deny, and it was the start of the new them; the people they became after feeling forced to leave their old selves behind. It was commonly seen amongst the group as a dramatic way of saying that, Penny's death was also the day Gumball, Carrie, and Darwin died with her.

Through a practical lens, the funeral was amazing, the service was well paid for and the setting couldn't be more perfect. Each guest showed an appropriate amount of distraught and was perfect when respecting the funeral services; her family, her friends, and even her worst teachers had convivial words for how much Penny meant to everyone, and how much of a positive impact her life had made all across Elmore. To Gumball, it was clear as day that Penny wouldn't have wanted people to break down over her death. Her efforts during the most difficult time of her life were for her as much as it was for everyone else. So when he went up to speak, he felt like it was better to go with all smiles. Carrie and Darwin very much supported the idea, even as it crashed and burned, ruining his image further than any trouble he used to cause. The comedian he was once seen as was no longer the type of person he represented, his words were fumbled, his jokes were despicable, and his speech was terribly eloquent in truly what made it worse. He started topics he couldn't finish and would have been better off speaking about memorable moments with Penny during her best vitality. Slowly, the funeral ended with hate and despair as an alternative to the closure they sought. Gumball's efforts worsen the scene and were met with more hate and backlashing than Penny was met with tears during the service. The hate he was getting made it painfully obvious to Gumball that it was time for him to leave. Too exhausted to argue the points that were being made against his behaviour and sense of respect, that he left without a word of protest. Though his now closest friend and his brother knew that the right was to openly support and defend Gumball from guests, more people benefited from their silence than if they were to give the town lip for the way they treated Gumball in his attempt to try something new. The two were aware that the town was mentally exhausted and needed to vent, it wasn't a good excuse for what they did, but there was time for that.

Carrie hovered by Penny's grave as the cemetery emptied out. Darwin "wanted" to help, yet he took the first chance he had to get out of there. Darwin believes it's best to be with as many people as he can before he too dies. His insecurities began to control him like a puppet; throwing himself at anyone who showed any amount of love. His love and loneliness complex never extended to Gumball. Gumball believed the exact opposite. Even with all the jokes and amazing adventures Gumball has had with all of Elmore, there was never any real attachments to anyone besides his family, Carrie, and Penny. The most important one of all was Penny. There was no better support system for all of his shenanigans. When he was down, she would always force him back up, and it never mattered what got him down; her enemies were his demons, and she fought without hesitation no matter how powerful each one was. Of course, she was more to him than just that, it was an interdependent relationship after all. He aimed to return the love he got, always, but when she died, Gumball met his end. There was no longer anyone for him to lean on the way he did with her, and it became the death of that Gumball Watterson. With no love to receive and no one to love, his morality plummeted. Everyone around him became a waste of time and effort. His new found belief included his family, stirring up trouble between him and Darwin. The two was always stubborn and hot-headed, once Gumball expressed his feelings, Darwin snapped. To Darwin, they were no longer best friends, and to Gumball, they were no longer family. Turmoil bloomed everywhere and there was one person in the middle of all of it: Carrie. Even as a ghost, this weighed heavily on her, her reasons were different from the Gumball and everyone was hurt because her mind wanders towards betrayal.

People have been reassuring her for efforts in using black magic to help Penny, despite her failures. No one could blame her just like no one could blame the doctors for not being able to cure everyone that walks through the front doors. All of her classmates and teachers believed that Carrie was sad baring no fruits for her labour, but it has always been the other way around. They would never know of her success in ensuring that Penny died of "cancer" and how Penny was supposed to have been cured through her ever adaptive cells. A few weeks before Penny died, the countless test and examinations she was put through showed promising results: Cellular Evolution. Her constant change was actually giving her cells additional traits, allowing her to grow an immunity to cancer and similar illness. Normally it was as impossible is just randomly finding a shapeshifter, but she was still developing and that meant that her cells were highly influential, allowing her to cure herself. Of course, the cure was never finished as it took time to fight off all symptoms of her cancer, as it had months to work with while her rebellion was still young. Her body was more than just weak, and dying was honestly an understatement it was more like suffering. The pain and hardship her body put her through just to get to that point left her more than crippled, but it also left her very susceptible to black magic. Carrie had her own advantage in what she was doing, her plans were of no one's suspicions. There was never a reason for Penny to be truly hated against or seen as an enemy. Her motives and feelings, hidden well beneath years of experience in expressing none towards anyone besides herself, and the existence of black magic might have spread around, but the know-how stopped at her. It was perfect. Black magic gave her the power and answer to fixing her biggest problem by erasing all together, after all, there is no need to for a solution to a non-existing problem. Sadly for Gumball, he trusted the wrong person, for Carrie was made aware of Penny's ever-increasing hope by no other than Gumball. He was so happy to see Carrie share the same smile and joy regarding the news, and she genuinely did too; her advance would have been too late if it wasn't for Gumball. It only took minutes to turn Penny's hope and only chance for survival into the weapon that would steal her last breath away; as the doctors said, "Highly influential" and that was all she needed to end it all.

It only took a couple days for her to know if she succeeded, and that was the day Penny died. As much as it Carrie wanted her dead, she was hurt most by being there. Her emotions were the reasons behind her actions, and there was no pretending there was none in her; being the person who stabbed her in the back and still showed up every day to the hospital was more draining than anything she had ever gone through. To smile for her and then cry for her death, to receive the amount of love she got from Penny, and to care for her to her face, was all adding up into a paralyzing amount of pain. The lugubrious state of mind she was in was a fraction of her punishment as she takes steps to comfort and get close to the person she betrayed the most.


End file.
